How to Ask for Reviews of Your School or College
Reputation is king, especially to prospective parents and students. Reviews are one of the most qualifying factors of a brand’s reputation. Search engines also look at reviews, especially third party sites like Google Business Profiles, GreatSchools, Niche, etc. From the number of reviews to the quality of those reviews, search engines factor these into their search engine rankings. This is why reviews are so important.
Why Invest in a Review Strategy?
Studies show that users are reading reviews of local businesses now more than ever. And it’s more than just the presence of reviews - businesses that interact with reviews demonstrate to customers that they’re active and present.
How to Get Reviews
Asking for reviews can feel, well, icky. But at the end of the day, we need them. It comes down to how you go about asking parents and students to leave these reviews. It’s important you honor terms and conditions set by services like Google and Yelp in addition to privacy protections. As a business, it can be frustrating maintaining reviews given the influx of “fake” reviews prevalent on Amazon, Google, and Facebook. It becomes a matter of working smarter, not harder. Focus on sites that are most relevant to your audience - GreatSchools, Niche, US News & World Report, etc. - sites that primarily focus on education.
One thing to bear in mind as you consider asking for reviews - people generally love giving their opinion (especially if it’s been a stellar experience or a horrible one). So with that in mind, what are some of the best ways to ask for reviews?
Use positive experiences as a jumping off point - if you’ve had a cool interaction with a student or parent that they’re raving about, determine if you think they’d be up for actually telling others what they’ve just shared with you. It’s important to read the room/situation - a student or parent’s first positive remark may not be indicative of a potential review, and it’s important to not come across as more interested in a review than that person’s experience.
Tell that person how the time they take to leave that review can influence others, i.e. “...your experience is really great to hear. Other parents who are looking for a school would probably appreciate hearing from real parents like you who went through something similar. Would you mind taking a few minutes to share your experience? *include a link or tell them where to go*”
Personalizing requests - using email blasts or texts are great, but going the extra mile to make it personal will increase the likelihood of people actually following through.
Make it as easy as possible - take all the work out of leaving a review! If someone has to search for where you want them to leave their experience, they’ll feel less of an incentive to actually do it. If sending email blasts, include the actual website location where that person can leave the review. Some sites, like Google Business Profile, even offer a super easy short URL you can include in QR codes, websites, email signatures, etc.
Keep requests genuine, short and sweet
A few other tips that will encourage people to actually take the time to leave reviews:
Create an internal tracking system to help you know who you’ve contacted, how often, and when/if they’ve responded
If a person replies they wish to be removed from the mailing list or no longer contacted, honor this and make sure they are removed from your mailing list
And lastly - it’s extremely important to respond to reviews where you can—the good and bad! Responses to reviews are not the appropriate places to solve parent or student complaints, but it is a great place to give that person a way to further address the issue, i.e. “I’m so sorry to hear about your experience. Would you be willing to reach out to contactme@thisschool.edu to tell us more?”
When To Ask For Reviews
As previously mentioned, use any positive experiences as a jumping off point, especially if it’s been in-person, or one-on-one contact.
Campus tours
School events
After successfully resolving an issue
After successful completion of a course, workshop, etc.
Social media can also be an interesting place to generate feedback. From YouTube to TikTok, asking students to tag the school, leave comments, etc., can be a great way to generate interest, which can lead to people leaving reviews.
Sites To Ask People to Leave Reviews
The ideal review site(s) will vary depending on the school or institution. Google Business Profiles are often the first place people will see reviews and stars. But for colleges, Google Profiles have also begun to include other sites like Niche, US News and World Report, Princeton Review, etc. We would recommend internally choosing one or two sites in addition to Google that you would like to focus on. A few top sites we would recommend:
Unigo: Colleges only (user will need to create an account)
Private School Review: K-12 only
Great Schools: K-12 only
Taking Advantage of Reviews
While the main focus of this article is instructing you how to solicit reviews of your school or college, you don’t need to stop there. Once you begin to receive reviews, consider the following tactics to make the most of any positive social proof:
Add positive comments to key points in the user journey. This could mean inserting quotes into email communication or on specific website pages where prospects typically encounter friction.
Spin outstanding reviews into new social media content.
When appropriate, re-share IG or TikTok user reviews with your audience.
Reviewers may be willing to expand their review or work with you to provide additional content. This can allow you to discover and tell some amazing personal stories about how your brand has impacted people’s lives. An example of a school working with willing stakeholders for expanded reviews can be seen on the Kent Place School homepage.
The homepage of Kent Place School features a carousel of short, quick-hitting stakeholder reviews that help users get a sense of the institution’s personality and community.
Western Governors incorporates student feedback into higher ed advertising campaigns
Use reviews to develop advertising campaigns that speak directly to your audience’s deepest desires or pain points. Western Governors University relies on this approach for many of their social media ads.
Your Next Steps
Our advice is to get started planning your review strategy today. Like all SEO-related tactics, the impact of the work you do today will be strongest over time. Start with individuals who you know will be willing to supply an honest, authentic review. Seek additional reviews throughout the year, especially at the key milestones in a student’s journey.
If you’re in need of additional bandwidth, would like assistance turning reviews into an effective advertising communication strategy, or just need someone to tell you if you’re on the right path, reach out to us today!